


Palimpsest - Left Behind

by cutsycat



Series: Dictionary.Com Word of the Day Drabbles [1274]
Category: NCIS
Genre: Character Death, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-07
Updated: 2019-06-07
Packaged: 2020-04-12 04:45:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19124860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutsycat/pseuds/cutsycat
Summary: Gibbs dies unexpectedly, but what does Tony find in his house as executor of his will?





	Palimpsest - Left Behind

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Angst_BuriTTo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angst_BuriTTo/gifts).



> Another dictionary.com word of the day drabble. This time from 10/26/2002 for the word [scintilla](http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/2002/10/26/palimpsest).
> 
> palimpsest[ pal-imp-sest ]  
> noun  
> a parchment or the like from which writing has been partially or completely erased to make room for another text.
> 
> This was requested by TT40_Angst_Queen as part of my 2018 prompt challenge [here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/cutsycat_NCIS_Prompts_2018/profile). More instructions are below if you wish to sign up. This prompt had many options. I removed the ones that I wasn't filling with this story. 
> 
>  **Prompt:**  
>  2\. Deathfic (Gibbs)  
> Tibbs  
>  **End Prompt**

Tony stared at the house now devoid of life. They’d buried Gibbs last weekend. Tony had known that Gibbs had listed him as executor of his will, but Tony hadn’t expected Gibbs’ death to come so soon. 

He needed to start cataloguing Gibbs’ stuff and figure out what they were going to do with it. Tony had considered putting the house on the market, but he couldn’t bring himself to sell the last connection he had to Gibbs. He couldn’t help wondering if he should wait to do this.

Gibbs’ death was unexpected and still very fresh in Tony’s mind. He’d always known that you could lose someone in their line of work. That’s how they’d lost Kate, after all, but he’d never expected to lose Gibbs to an angry escaped rhino protecting Amira, who he’d been taking to the zoo.

Tony hadn’t believed it when he’d been called in. Of course, an investigation had been started into Gibbs’ death and whether it was accidental or on purpose. Amira was understandably shaken and upset, though Gibbs had managed to prevent her from coming to harm. 

Tony couldn’t believe that Gibbs could just be dead like that. One day he’s fine. The next gone forever. 

It didn’t make any sense. Tony suspected foul play. Rhinos didn’t just escape from the zoo and engage random bystanders for no reason. 

Still they’d have to wait for the results of the investigation to conclude to know for sure. In the meantime, the team had held a funeral for Gibbs inviting Amira, Franks, Layla, and any others that they might want to be present. Everyone had plenty of good words to say about Gibbs and it had been a very moving ceremony. 

Now, Tony needed to start figuring out who would want what of Gibbs’ stuff. It wasn’t like Gibbs had any children of his own who would want his stuff. Tony doubted that anyone at NCIS would want anything of Gibbs’ except maybe Abby. 

It was hard to say. Tony wanted to be investigating Gibbs’ death, but he knew he needed to figure out what he was going to do about Gibbs’ house and things first. 

He started in the bedroom which was pretty quick to sort out as it was mostly bed, clothes, and very little in the way of decorations or meaningful items. The clothes and probably the bed as well would go to Goodwill or the Salvation Army. 

The next room was still full of Kelly’s stuff. If Jackson were still alive, Tony would offer it to him as he definitely didn’t have any use for any of it. He added everything in that room to the goodwill pile as well. 

Tony was considering moving into this house as Gibbs had basically left everything to him in his will, so he left the kitchen stuff alone for now. Not that Gibbs had a lot of kitchen stuff, but it would make things easier to not have to bring all of his kitchen stuff over at once. He still had three or four months until his lease was up, so he didn’t have to rush the decision.

Tony moved into the den to see what Gibbs had there that might need to be dealt with. He made his way over to the desk that Tony assumed held Gibbs’ important papers. Tony stopped short as he noticed a notepad sitting on the desk with the words Dear Tony scrawled across it.

Everything beneath that had been erased. Tony couldn’t help taking a pencil and rubbing over the palimpsest to try and read what Gibbs had written to him. It was obvious that Gibbs had written and erased whatever it was many times as the words stacked on top of each other making it even harder to read than normal.

Finally, Tony managed to make out a semblance of what Gibbs was saying. It read like a love confession. As what he just read sunk in, Tony snarled, “Bastard. We could have been together before you died if you hadn’t been such a chickenshit.”

Tony shook his head and tried to finish cataloguing the stuff in the den, but it was harder to concentrate on it now as he realized that Gibbs had cheated both of them out of a relationship they wanted. He’d been in love with Gibbs for years. 

To find out that he could have had everything he ever wanted, but Gibbs was too scared to actually tell him face to face and now Gibbs was gone for good? Tony broke down. He wasn’t one for crying, but he was so pissed at Gibbs that he couldn’t help himself.

Losing Gibbs in the first place had been a shock, but now it was just painful. So many what ifs and regrets ran through Tony’s head. He couldn’t handle them all. 

He didn’t know how he was going to go on, after this. He’d lost the man he loved and found out that the same man loved him too all in the same bloody week. What was the world coming to?

How could Gibbs do this to them? It wasn’t fair. Tony just wanted Gibbs back.

**Author's Note:**

> Ack! I've run out of stories that are written for the dictionary.com series. I've started the next one, so hopefully I can finish it in time to post it sometime tomorrow. Wish me luck! 
> 
> It's 2019 now and I have closed my 2018 Prompt collection, but fear not my 2019 Prompt Collection is now open [here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/cutsycat_NCIS_Prompts_2019/profile). Just click the sign up link. ;) It will remain open until the beginning of 2020. I'm hoping to complete all the 2019 prompts by the end of 2020. Do not fear I have not forgotten about the 2018 prompts and will continue working through them. It's just easier for me to not get overwhelmed if I keep the prompts separated by the year they were given to me.
> 
> If you are not an ao3 member, you can prompt me [here](http://cutsycat.livejournal.com/50701.html). Please follow the same rules as are listed in the above link. However, because this is a handmade prompt form(that thinks it's a poll), it is considerably more limited than what ao3 provides, so please use the ao3 form if you're an ao3 member. Please note the name option is for a name that I can say this is for so that you know it's for you. Since this is for non ao3 members it won't be true gifts, but you will be mentioned in the notes. Please note if you have already voted in the poll and would like to request more stories you can just add a comment to the poll. Please include the name along with the prompt, so that I can appropriately gift the prompt to you.
> 
> For any authors that want to chat and/or are looking for a place where they can toss plot ideas around and get input from people, you can come join my discord server that is specifically geared towards writing/encouraging people to write and authors. The invite link is [here](https://discord.gg/HFvwpCq). If you're not an author, but want to chat with me about writing/stories or anything else you are welcome to join. I reserve the right to boot you from my server if all you do is pester me about updates, however. *grin* Really anyone who wants to talk about writing and/or plot ideas for various stories is welcome to join. 
> 
> I do not currently have a discord dedicated to my stories. If anyone would be interested in joining a group chat server that is focused on my stories please comment below. Also, if you would like such a thing what kind of things would you like to know about? Please share those with me.
> 
> Also, Drakonyashka has translated a couple of my works into Russian. [Tutelage](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378780) and [Imbue](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378840). Go support them. 


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